Target identification and tracking systems that employ a number of tracking vehicles to track and/or destroy targets generally require high resolution imaging to identify a specific aimpoint on a target that differs from the target's centroid. It may be desirable to track an aimpoint on a target, rather than a centroid, because the lethality of the tracking vehicle can be improved, resulting in reduced cost, size, and/or weight. Some conventional target identification systems use long-wave (LW) diffraction techniques to identify and/or track a target. The resolution of these long-wave diffraction techniques is limited by aperture size and wavelength, among other things, making these techniques impractical for small tracking vehicles, such as miniature kill vehicles, to track a target's aimpoint other than a centroid.
Some higher resolution systems that use shorter wavelengths for imaging may have better diffraction limits for tracking a separate aimpoint, but have a limited passive acquisition range and may require external illumination to acquire targets. Some lower resolution systems that track a target's centroid do not need high resolution because they do not identify a separate aimpoint. These lower resolution systems may require the tracking vehicles to have a higher kill radius. This may result in heavier and/or more expensive tracking vehicles.
Thus, there are general needs for methods and target tracking systems that can track a target's aimpoint that's offset from the centroid with smaller tracking vehicles.